Combined tail light, name and license plate holder



March 25 i924..-

H. H. WEISS COMBINED TAIL LIGHT, NAME AND LICENSE PLATEIHOLDER FiledOct. 14. 1922 A fl Patented Mar. 25, 1.924..

citizen of the` United States, residing unirse' star-ee HERBERT H.

raven rc.

WEISS, or EUGENE, OREGON.

GOMBINED .TAIL LIGHT, NAME AND LICENSE PLATE HOLDER, i

Application filed October 14, 1922.' Serial No. 594,479.

To all rwhom t may concern: Be it known that I, HERBERT H. Wrrss,

at uene, in the county of Lane and tate of refon, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Combined Tail Lights, Name and LicensePlate Holders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention -relates yto an improved tail light, name and licenselplate holder for motor vehicles and seeks, as one of its principalobjects, to provide a device which will serve the function of a taillight and, at the saine time, will also serve to support a license plateas well as display a name plate bearing the name of the city or townwhere the owner is resident. l l

A further object of the invention is to provide a device which will becharacterized y structural simplicity and which Ina-y be produced atmoderate cost.

And the invention has as a still further object to provide a devicewhich may beV readily applied and which Will be well adapted for generaluse. Other and incidental hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my im' 'proved device,

Figure 2' is a longitudinal sectional view on the line 2 2 of Figure 1,looking in the direction of the arrows,

Fi ure 3 is a vertical sectional view on the llne 3-3 lof Figure 1,looking in the direction of-the arrows, and

Figure 4 is a reduced perspective view showing the keeper-employed forthe name plate of the device, removed.

In carrying the invention into effect, I employ a preferabl oblongcasing which may be formed of s eet metal or other approved material andincludes a back wall 10 continued, as particularly shown in Figure 3, toprovide a top wall 11 which, at its forward margin, is bent to define anupstanding channel shaped flange 12. Closing the casing at its ends areend walls 13 and 14 having flanges 15 overlyin the back wall andVsimilar flanges 16 over ying the top wall, these flanges being suitablysecured to the latter walls supportin the objects will app-ear line adepending channel shaped flange 19 facing the flange l2 of the top wallin `a plane therewith. As best brought out in Figure 1, the end wall 13is bent at its forward margin to define a flange 20` extending betweenthe free edges of the flanges 12 and 19 at their adjacent endsconnecting the latter flanges so asA to prevent spreading thereof, theflange 2O being secured to the flanges 12 and 19 in any a propriatemanner. On the other hand, t e end wall 14 is bent outwardly and back-Wardly at its forward margin to define a channel-shaped flange 21graduall increasin@r in' width toward its lower en Iemovably fitting inthe fianges 12 and 19 is a transparent name plate 22 closing the casingat its forward side. This plate may bear the name of a city or townwhere the owner of the vehicle using the device is resident, the lettersof the name being im-` posed upon the pla-te in any approved manner.However, it should be observedthat the letters of the name arepreferably colored red. At one end, the plate abuts the end wall 13 ofthe casing, which wall forms a stop for the plate, while at its oppositeend, the plate terminates lsubstantially flush with the end wall 14 andretainingI the plate sition as shown in Fi ure 1, the fiange v24` willwedge upon the ange 21 for bindin the keeper in position, the free mar'n o the fla-nge 19 being sprung out-war 1y at its adjacent end toaccommodate the keeper for limiting the keeper in its downward movement.i

A s best shown in Figure 3, the back wall 10 of the casing isextendedbelow the bottom wall 17 to provide a depending apron 25 while saidbottom wall terminates short of the back Wallv to define a relativelynarrow' window opening 26 extending from end to end of the casing.Resting upon the rear ends of the fianges 17 of the-end walls is a*transparency 27 closing said'opening. This transparency may be formed ofcelluloid or llO other approved material and may be secured in positionin any appropriate manner. Formed in the apron 25 are slots 28 and, assuggested in Figure 1, these slots are adapted to accommodate fasteningdevices 29 conl'necting a license plate, as conventionally which extendsforwardly and downwardlyin front of the lamp for preventing accidentalinjury thereto, this guard being adapted to be flexed when the lamp isremoved. Detachably engaged in the lamp socket at its outer end is anappropriate plug and leading from said plug is a clrcuit wire 34supplying current to the lamp. Thus, in the daytime, the red colo-redletters of the name upon the name plate 22 will be readily visiblewhile,'by energizing the lam 32 the name upon said late will likewise ereadily readable at night, and due to the coloring of the letters of thename, the device will project a `red colored light and will, therefore,amply function as a tail light. At the same time, the license plate 30will be illuminated through the window opening 26 so said license platewill be readily vis- Having thus described the invention, what I claimas new is:

l. A device of the character described including a casing having atapered portion, a name plate carried by. the casing and removableendw'ise therefrom, and a keeper formed with a tapered portion havingwedging engagement with the tapered portion of the casing supporting thekeeper to overlie one end of the` plate limiting said plate againstdisplacement. y

2. A device of the character described including a casing, a name platecarried thereby and removable endwise from the casing, the casing beingprovided with a tapered flange, and a vkeeper overlying one end of theplate limiting the plate against. displacement and having a flangegradually increasing in depth to mate with said first mentioned flangewedging thereon connecting the keeper with the casing.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

HERBERT H. WEISS. [La]

